A loose grip on reality is needed to want to swim across the Atlantic. And even if it were possible, how could you bring your luggage? Let’s say you were a powerful enough swimmer to manage the trip, swimming across 1000s of miles of ocean with your suitcase and duty-free rum, how could you then fight off the sharks, duck the ghost ships and weather the fearsome storms? Delusion. Inevitably, if you want to move across oceans and continents you pay in C02 emissions as well as money. This pollution can be somewhat offset, however, by a sustainable engagement with your life, which is something I aspire towards as I imagine my upcoming year in Mexico City and Barcelona. In my mind’s eye it is a romantic and heady and precarious time but as the months go by, ever more real- I depart for the former on the 1st of September.
Whilst I’m in Mexico I will travel on foot, on public transport or by bike, except when returning from an inebriated escapade on the town or late-night dinner with friends, after which I will have to get in an Uber for my safety after sundown. I am a flash Londoner, if I hadn’t yet mentioned, and I hope that for this reason I’ll be able to exchange some of my good clothes for interesting local items at the monthly Mercados del Trueque, where old items are exchanged rather than tags popped off new ones in retail stores. Here I can hopefully start conversations, mingle and barter with people who live in Mexico City year-round, and contribute meaningfully to the society I am living in, something I am keen to do, knowing that other immigrants from my country and other wealthy English-speaking places can sometimes be seen as rather vampiric and gentrifying. The same view is quite pervasive in Barcelona, where markets will also be important. The ‘mercats municipals’ (neighbourhood markets, of which there are 39) are at the heart of sustainable food shopping in the city- fresh, local, seasonal and with minimal packaging. Arguably tastiest too. Unequivocally, another good place to get involved with communities and have conversations, participate in a meaningful, sustainable, non-gentrifying way. I love to walk, but even in my home city London, I’m partial to renting a bike if I find myself pushed for time or especially eager to arrive somewhere. Buying one on Wallapop (Spanish gumtree), which I can then sell at the end of my stay or gift to a friend, is something I can imagine doing.
I will be working in a volunteer capacity for Amnesty International initially in Mexico City and then Metal Magazine in Barcelona. In the former, by defending people’s human rights when the environmental crisis endangers them, and in the latter, by promoting sustainable tourism and environmentally conscious consumption of culture, I know that I will also be able to contribute to a sustainable future through my work; an important reason for my choosing these placements.
